25 Best Android Tips to Make Your Phone More Useful

Apple may have kicked off the smartphone revolution, but it’s Google that has taken it to the logical conclusion. Android is now the most popular computing platform in the world — larger than iOS, of course, but also surpassing Windows and macOS. This is due in large part to its powerful open-source nature. Android is also powerful, but sometimes it can all get a bit confusing. Google is always making tweaks and coming up with new features for Android, and OEMs like Samsung and OnePlus can add their own stuff on top of that. It can be hard to keep up, so we’ve gathered the 25 best tips for your Android phone right here.

Configure Your Lock Screen

Android phones all offer various forms of secure lock screens. Most phones will prompt you to do this during setup now, and you should. The defaults are PIN, pattern, and password. Most devices now offer fingerprint security which will probably be the fastest way to unlock your device. To control your lock screen, head to the system settings, and find the Security menu. Some phones have a separate lock screen menu instead. You will need to have a secure lock screen to use features like Android Pay and factory reset protection.

Disable/Uninstall Bloatware

Most phones come with some apps pre-installed that you won’t want to keep around. Luckily, they can be dealt with these days. Some pre-installed bloat can be uninstalled normally by using the Play Store or finding it in the app settings menu. However, anything that’s part of the system image is non-removable. What you can do is disable it by opening the app menu from the main system settings and finding the app in your list. Right at the top will be a “Disable” button that removes it from your app drawer and prevents it from running in the background.

Find Your Phone

We have all occasionally lost track of a phone. Maybe it was hiding in the couch cushions or sitting on the kitchen counter. Don’t go crazy looking for your phone next time; just use Google’s “Find my device” tool (previously known as Android Device Manager). You can access this via the web on a mobile device or computer. Simply log into your Google account, and choose your missing phone from the drop-down menu. Google reaches out and shows you where it is. You can also ring the phone, even if it’s in silent mode. If worse comes to worst, you can remotely erase the phone to protect your data.

Chat Bubbles

You’re a popular one, aren’t you? Maybe you’re getting so many messages from friends, acquaintances, and well-wishers that it can be hard to keep up. Worry not, because Android supports Chat Bubbles starting in version 11. This feature was slated to come to earlier versions, but it ended up delayed. The gist is you can allow chat apps to pop up small bubbles for each chat thread instead of keeping everything in the notification shade. They’re like Facebook’s chat heads, but it works with almost any app. Most phones need this feature enabled, with you will find under the notification settings.

Choose Do Not Disturb Settings

Android’s notification settings are a bit confusing right now. Not only do OEMs often change the terminology, but Google itself has revamped it a few times in recent updates. You’ll find the settings for this feature either in your volume popup when you hit the toggle or by going into the system settings for notifications (usually Sound and Notification). It will be called Do Not Disturb on most devices. In this menu, you can choose when DND is toggled on automatically, what is blocked, and if any contacts are allowed to ring through anyway. On Pie devices, Do Not Disturb defaults to hiding your notifications as well. Make sure to change that setting if you still want to see what’s going on in the notification shade.

Digital Wellbeing

Maybe you spend too much time on your phone sometimes, but Android has some tools to help you avoid that. The Digital Wellbeing suite (Android 9 and later) shows you what apps you’ve been using, for how long, and offers ways to stop that from happening. The settings menu breaks down apps on a chart, and lets you set a time limit for apps you want to cut back. The chart tracks notifications and unlocks as well. There’s also a “Wind down” mode that slowly fades the screen to grayscale as bedtime approaches.

Make Sure Your Photos Back Up Automatically

There’s nothing worse than losing or breaking a phone only to realize your photos aren’t backed up. You can avoid this by simply opening the Google Photos app and following the prompts to enable auto-backup. The default mode is “high quality” and unlimited space. This compresses your photos, but they look surprisingly good. If you want to save the original image, you can opt to use your Drive storage space. You get 15GB free and can buy more.

“OK Google” Voice Match

Google search is at the heart of all Android phones, and you can start searching at any time just by saying “OK Google.” This works on the home screen and in the search box automatically, but if you go into the search settings, you can get OK Google working everywhere. In the search settings, go to Voice > Voice Match. Just turn on the “Access with Voice Match” option and the phone will have you say “OK Google” a few times to learn your voice. Now you can use the hotword any time the device is awake from any screen. Some devices also support this when the screen is off, while others only work when the device is awake.

Try a Different Home Screen

Most Android devices have a custom UI created by the device maker (eg. Samsung Experience launcher). That includes the home screen. This is an important part of the experience, and the default home often isn’t very powerful. Installing an alternative like Nova Launcher or Action Launcher can make your device much easier to use. You can use these apps to change the icons, assign navigation gestures, organize apps, and so much more. Any time you want to change between your installed home screens, just go to the Home menu in the system settings.

Google Assistant

Did you set up OK Google? If so, you’ve got two ways to access the Google Assistant. To access Assistant, use OK Google or long-press the home button. Then, just start talking. This feature was exclusive to the Pixel for a few months, but it has since rolled out to all Android phones running Marshmallow or higher. Assistant understands more context and natural language than Google’s old voice search feature, and it can be integrated with third-party services like IFTTT, Samsung SmartThings, and Nest. It’s great at home automation and searching the web, and it can even read you the news of the day.

Manage Apps on the Web Play Store

Google includes the Play Store client on Android devices, but there’s also a version of the Play Store accessible online. For some people, this is a no-brainer, but not everyone thinks to use the web-based Play Store. You can do all the same things here that you do on your phone, but faster. Apps and games can be purchased and pushed over the air to Android. You can queue up multiple installs in a fraction of the time it takes on Android. If you’ve got more than one device on your account, you can pick where the app goes.

Notification History

Android makes it so easy to triage your notifications that sometimes you might swipe away something accidentally. If you’ve enabled notification history, you can always find out what that item said. For privacy reasons, this feature is disabled by default. As long as your device is secured with a lock screen option, you should be fine to enable this feature under the Notifications setting menu. Simply head into that menu at any time, and you can see recently dismissed notifications at the top. Below, notifications from the last day are broken up by app. Be aware: some of those lists can take a while to load and make your device hang for a few seconds. In addition, the only usable version of this feature is in Android 11 and later.

Swipe Input on the Keyboard (most devices)

Tapping with your thumbs is okay as an input method, but most phones have swipe input built-in too. Give it a shot by dragging across the letters for each word. The accuracy varies by device, but you can also install a different keyboard that might suit you better. There’s Google’s Gboard, but others prefer something like SwitfKey with its plethora of settings.

Use Power-Saving Modes

All Android phones have power-saving modes of some sort — sometimes two or three of them. Head to the battery menu (usually just Settings > Battery) on most phones to see these settings. For example, Samsung offers a regular power-saving mode that reduces screen brightness and slows the CPU, then there’s also an ultra power saver that locks the device to just a few essential applications. Most phones, like those from Google, offer basic power saving modes like the former that can be turned on automatically when the device reaches a certain battery level. This is definitely something you should set up.

System Dark Theme

A lot of apps (particularly Google’s) have bright white styles. Starting in Android 10, there’s a system-wide dark theme that can toggle those apps and parts of the system UI to a nice, muted black. It’s available in the Display settings or more conveniently in the quick settings. Some phones also have options to schedule the dark theme so it flips on automatically every night and off in the morning. Only apps that have been developed for the theming API will work, but that list is growing by the day.

Manage Default Apps

Many actions on Android will ask you to set a default app, but what if you decide you don’t like that default anymore? Most phones today have a dedicated default app settings menu in the application settings, but you can always clear out those defaults by finding your default apps in the main app settings menu. When you look at the info page for an app, there will be an option toward the bottom to view and clear the defaults. That will let you select a new default the next time you perform an action.

Turn on Developer Options

Google hides some of the more advanced tools in a special Developer Options menu that you’ll have to enable to get at things like animation speed, USB debugging, and app standby. To turn on Developer Options, open the “About phone” menu at the bottom of the system settings and find the build number. Tap on that seven times and you’ll get a message that you are a developer. The dev options will now be at the bottom of your main system settings.

Rotation Lock Button

Rotation lock can be a bit touchy, flipping the screen around when you tilt the phone just a little too far. In Android 9 Pie and later, you can change the rotation setting to lock it in portrait mode but still have access to landscape mode. Start by disabling auto-rotate in the settings. Then, look for the rotation button at the bottom of the screen the next time you turn the phone sideways. Tap that, and it locks into landscape mode until you spin the phone back. Tap the button again, and it’s locked in portrait again.

Autofill Service

If you’ve got Android 8.0 or higher on your phone, you don’t have to type in a password ever again. Well, you’ll have to do it less. Visit your input settings and open the advanced menu to enable autofill for usernames and passwords. By default, you can enable Google’s autofill service, which is tied to Chrome. Third-party apps like LastPass and Dashlane also have support for this feature. Just tap in a login field in virtually any app, and your autofill app can add the matching username and password.

Screencasting

Do you have a Chromecast or Android TV? If so, you can do more than stream video to it. Android devices can mirror the entire display onto your TV, and it’s essentially foolproof. On stock-ish Android devices like Pixels (and a few more) there is a Cast icon in the Quick Settings. Tap that and pick an output device to start mirroring your display. On other phones, just download the Google Home app and use the screencasting feature included there — it’ll appear on the page for any supported Chromecast or smart display.

Notification Channels

Starting in Android 8.0 Oreo, Google made it easier to cut down on the notification noise. Apps now have notification channels, so you can change how their various alerts appear (and whether they appear at all). To edit a notification channel, go to the app’s info screen or long-press on a notification and tap the settings gear to see all the associated channels. On Android 10, you can tap the “Turn off notifications” option to get a popup with available channels. Here, you can turn each channel on or off, change the way it appears, and more.

Customize Quick Settings

The quick settings are the settings toggles visible at the top of the notification panel (most devices) and in the fully expanded quick settings UI. On most devices, you can access them by swiping down twice. Customizing these is something everyone should do when getting a new device, and the process is much more consistent than it used to be. Google added customizable quick settings in Android 7.0, and OEMs often add a few more options to this area (like Samsung, above). Just open the quick settings and hit the edit button. Then, long-press and drag to rearrange. The first few settings toggles you have in the list will be accessible at the top of the notification pane prior to opening quick settings. App developers can also add tiles that show up in the editing interface. For example, Twitter apps have tiles to start a new Tweet and VPN apps have on/off toggles.

Use (and Remove) Factory Reset Protection

Way back in version 5.1, Android added factory reset protection, which is nice should your phone ever be stolen. The thief won’t be able to reset and log into the phone without first knowing your Google password. However, you might also accidentally lock the new owner out of your phone (or even yourself) if you sell it. Factory reset protection is enabled automatically when you have a secure lock screen enabled. Make sure you don’t reset your phone less than 24 hours after changing your Google password, or you’ll trigger a 72-hour anti-theft lockout. To disable reset protection for a new user to log into the phone, just disable the secure lock screen or enable OEM unlock in the Developer Options.

Sideload (Safe) Apps

The Play Store has plenty of apps, but if you want to branch out a little, there are safe ways to do that. First, head into the security settings on your device and enable “Unknown Sources.” That will let you install APKs downloaded from outside the Play Store. Some of the popular ones are the Amazon Appstore, F-Droid, and APK Mirror. Amazon offers a fair number of paid apps for free, and F-Droid is for free and open-source software. APK Mirror re-hosts free APKs so you don’t have to wait on staged rollouts and can get old versions of software.

Save Offline Maps

Google Maps includes support for saving maps offline, and the feature was recently expanded to be more powerful. It’s not easy to find, though. Find the area you want to save offline, then tap in the search bar at the top of the screen. Close the keyboard and scroll to the bottom and you’ll see the option to download. The app will bring up an outline to indicate the area that will be downloaded and estimate how much space it will take up. The offline data will include streets, basic points of interest, and the ability to use turn-by-turn navigation.

And Much More…

After all of the above, you should be a pro at using Android. This is just the beginning, though. There’s a lot more to discover in Android, and every device is a little different. So, don’t be afraid to poke around in the deep, dark corners of the settings and see what you can find.

Continue reading

Protect Your Online Privacy With the 5 Best VPNs

Investing in a VPN is a smart choice right now, but the options are vast. To help narrow things down a bit, we've rounded up five of our very favorite consumer services.

EKWB Launches Peltier Cooler Powered by Intel Cryo Cooling Technology

Intel and EKWB have jointly announced a new waterblock that integrates a Peltier cooler.

Look Up: You Can See All the Planets in Our Solar System Tonight

You've probably seen diagrams of the solar system that place the planets in nice, orderly lines, but the truth is they're often on the other side of the sun from Earth. We happen to be going through a period during which all the planets are visible. You just have to know where and when to look.

How Apple Is Collecting Your Data in macOS Big Sur

Apple's new Big Sur has been accused of some serious privacy violations and unfriendly user-access controls. The situation is a bit more nuanced.